The call came in a report on the Council's common position made before the second reading of the amendment to the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive, which will take place tomorrow (July 1, 2003).
The amendment, tabled by Dutch MEP Dorette Corbey, is tightening the recovery targets to be achieved by Member States in the light of better than expected recycling performances in some countries.
While the European Parliament has accepted the new target levels agreed by the European Council of Ministers, the Parliament has been demanding they be achieved by December 2006, while the Council is pushing for a 2008 deadline.
In the latest report, the Parliament's environment committee restated its determination to shorten the timetable. But in a signal that a compromise is likely to be reached between the two sides, the committee has offered to extend the deadline by six months to the end of June 2007, but has insisted it be extended no further than that.
The report said: “The committee accepts the minimum targets for recovery and recycling of packaging waste contained in the Council's common position. However, it refuses to back the Council's attempt to water down the timetable for these targets and is only prepared to lengthen the timetable in the original Commission proposal by six months.”
The targets agreed are as follows:
Overall recovery of packaging waste: 60% as a minimum by weight.
Overall recycling of packaging waste: 55%
Material-specific recycling: glass – 60%; paper and board – 60%; metals – 50%; plastics – 22.5%; wood – 15%.
The Environment Committee supports the Commission's original proposal to give Greece, Ireland and Portugal an extension of the deadline until June 30, 2009. It is also proposing an amendment stressing that the Directive must eventually be implemented by new countries joining the European Union.
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